Chapter 25

Scars & Souvenirs

Stakeouts were one of Andie's least favourite parts of her job; mainly because it was so boring she ran out of things to do in the first few minutes. However, Dean had offered to keep an eye on the Wallace house to monitor who went to and from the house. Sam was adamant there was a connection with the hex bags and the crime scenes. So while he continued to research Samhain, Andie followed Dean to do surveillance on the home to find a common thread. If they found a person who was present at both crime scenes, or at least had some bond with someone at each scene, which was likely, the witch who was trying to summon Samhain.

"How long has it been?" Andie asked letting out a large yawn that she didn't even both to stifle.

Dean checked his watch. "Two hours." He sighed and dove into the bag of candy that seemed to be a permanent extension to his body.

"We haven't even seen a mailman." Andie complained, leaning her head back against the car seat. She was getting more and more comfortable in the passenger's seat; although she didn't really feel like fighting Sam for the privilege.

The buzzing of Dean's cell phone broke the monotony for a few moments. While he answered and swapped information with his brother, Andie cast her eyes back over to the Wallace house. Still and silent, yet peaceful. No one would guess someone had just died in there. Quick as a bee sting, a familiar stab pained Andie through her left palm. Familiar; but a pain she hadn't felt in almost a year. It came from the scar slashed across her hand that was so old and so faint that most of the time she couldn't even see it on the brightest of days. Unlike most of Andie's battle wounds; this one had actually been intentionally grooved into her skin. By Cassidy; who happened to have an identical scar on her right hand.

The pair had inflicted them on each other around the time they had first met. It had been Cass's idea, and Andie had been too drunk to argue, that they needed a reminder of their first demon hunt together. In lieu of a tattoo; Cassidy had decided it was a much better idea to use a dagger to brand the pair of them. Andie had grown to love it; even though it only caught her eye every few months or so when it would develop a pinkish hue and seem to stand out on her skin. She always thought of Cassidy when it did that; but she assumed that was the point of the branding all along.

"What's up?" Dean asked, cutting into her thoughts, as he hung up his phone and dug into the bag of candy that sat between them.

Andie had been scrutinizing her scar and tracing her finger over it. "Hm?" She clenched her fist and rested it in her lap. "Oh, nothing..."

"Son of a bitch..." Dean breathed.

Andie shot him a confused look. "What the hell are-"

"No, Morgan, I mean it..." His eyes were rounded and focused on something across the street. "Son of a bitch."

Andie followed his wild eyes back to the Wallace house where a pretty, young blonde girl was walking up the front steps. "Who's that?" She asked as Mrs. Wallace answered the door with her infant son in her arms.

"Hot cheerleader." Dean answered slowly as Tracy took the baby and tickled him under the chin. "The one from the Halloween party." He grasped his keys and turned over the engine, catching Andie off guard he sped out of the street as fast as he could.

xxx

Andie and Dean arrived back at their room at the Moonlight Hotel in record time. On the drive, Andie called Sam and filled him in on the cheerleader so he could get to work getting her background information.

"So, our apple bobbing cheerleader is the Wallace's babysitter?" Sam asked, half happy, half worried, as the pair of them came in.

"She told me she never even heard of Luke Wallace." Dean shook his head; hating himself for falling for her little Damsel In Distress routine.

"Huh, interesting look for a centuries old witch."

"Yeah, well, if you were a six-hundred-year hag and you could pick any costume to come back in, wouldn't you go for a hot cheerleader?" Dean pointed out. "I would, hmm…" He sat down on his bed, letting his mind drift off into that thought for a moment or two.

"Snap out of it, honey." Andie warned him.

Dean raised his eyebrows at her and gave her an innocent little smile.

"Well, Tracy's not as wholesome as she looks." Sam interrupted. "Did some digging," He slid his laptop around to show them the screen. "Apparently she got into a violent altercation with one of her teachers and got suspended from school."

Dean sighed. "Ok, then off to school we go…" He heaved himself to his feet. "You comin', Morgan?"

"Ah, no, I'll hang here I think," Andie smiled. "Be careful." She called after them as they disappeared out the door.

As soon as the roar of the Impala's engine faded down the street, Andie dug out her cell phone and hit the speed dial for Cassidy. Pacing and chewing her lip, Andie tried not to worry herself. It was a flash of her scar, it didn't mean anything. Cass always called it a reminder. "If you see it and think of me, get off your ass and call," that's what she had said after she staunched the bleeding discovering that while drunk, Andie bled a lot more than normal.

Chewing her lip, Andie's heart fluttered a little out of sync when her call was sent to Cass's voicemail.

"Hey, you've reached me. Good for you. I'm not here, currently scoping out the view from Jupiter. Wanna join me, bring sun block. If not; leave a note and I'll get back to you when I'm good and ready."

Andie sighed and rolled her eyes. The woman couldn't remember to keep her car full of gas, but she remembered to change her voicemail message every couple of weeks. "Hey, it's me," Andie said into the phone. "Uh...just checking in...normally something you do...haven't heard from you in awhile so...gimme a buzz and let me know you're ok." Always awkward at the end of a message, Andie mumbled a goodbye and hung up. It wasn't unlike Cass not to have her phone; and she always called Andie back as soon as she got her messages. Nothing to worry about, she assured herself.

Now alone again, Andie decided to get back to training her power. Granted, she wasn't having any luck so far. But if at first you don't succeed...keep trying or I'll kill you, as was the phrase Cassidy spouted. Again, she got out her pencil and started trying to move it along the table. She tried to pump herself up; see it in her mind and then just follow through. But for over an hour she focused an again nothing happened.

Maybe I just need a bigger target than a pencil, she thought as she ransacked the kitchen drawers and found a long, sharp kitchen knife. Andie set the knife on the table and stood across the room. She moved it back and forth a few times by channeling through her fingers and then stuffed her hands in the back of her jeans and focused her eyes on the knife. Not a shudder.

"Come on, you bitch..." Andie murmured, furrowing her brow tightly together and squeezing her eyes into a piercing gaze. "Move!"

Nothing.

"God..." Andie relaxed the throbbing muscles in her face and rubbed her temple. "This is impossible."

Suddenly, what felt like a hook seized Andie by her insides and yanked her backwards off her feet until she collided heavily with the wall. She gasped as her head smacked against the tiled edging and tried to rub the space where the bump would no doubt grow. Shock ran through Andie's body when she realized; she couldn't move her hands. They were clasped together behind her back. She could feel them; but not move them. It was like she had lost control over them.

A soft scraping noise caught Andie's ears. Darting her eyes around the room; she noticed the glinting metal of the kitchen knife on the table. It was moving. Andie knew it wasn't her; she didn't feel the familiar rush through her veins that she got when her telekinesis pulsed through her. Something else was moving the knife; and moving it quickly. Andie's eyes widened as she saw the knife stand up on its end and then point directly at her forehead. Then, like a bull charging at a matador, the blade soared through the air making a beeline for the space between Andie's eyes.

"AH!" Andie screamed and squinted her eyes shut as hard as she could, bracing for the impact. Only it didn't come. The knife didn't pierce her skin. In fact, she felt no pain at all. Cautiously peeling her eyes open, Andie realized she hadn't been hit. And the knife was lying motionless at her feet looking completely harmless. "I did it." She muttered. She had to have used her power through her eyes to stop the knife; her hands had been locked behind her back. "Now...how did I do it...?" Her arms were no longer constricted; Andie quickly got to her feet, grab the devil knife and hid it in the ice box of the freezer.

"Andie?!" Dean's voice hollered after the loud cracking of the door bursting open.

"Who are you?!" Sam's scream followed.

"Sam, no!" Dean cried. "Where's Andie?!

"What the hell is--oh, crap!" Andie gasped and jumped as she almost walked straight into Castiel. "Don't do that! What is the harm in knocking?"

"Andie, you ok?" Dean asked rushing to her side as his brother made an enthusiastic greeting to Castiel; the angel he had never met before. "We heard you scream..." His eyes darted over her, looking for an injury.

"Yeah, fine." She assured him. "Just had a minor disagreement with a demonic kitchen kni..." She trailed off when she realized Castiel was not their only visitor. Standing in the direct centre of the room was a man with skin as black as charcoal, a smooth, bald head and a sneer creeping at his lips. He wore a smart black suit and had his hands folded in front of him. "Who is that?"She nodded her head at him.

"This is Uriel." Castiel answered moving away from Sam. "He's...a specialist." He looked into Dean's eyes, focused and penetrating. "The raising of Samhain, have you stopped it?"

"Why?" Dean asked; his expression quizzical.

"Dean, have you located the witch?" Castiel asked urgently.

"Yes, we've located the witch." Dean nodded

"You located the witch?" Andie raised her eyebrows, impressed they had tracked her down.

"We located the witch." Dean answered with a smug grin.

"And is the witch dead?" Castiel

"No, but…we know who it is." Dean argued.

Castiel walked over to the table beside the bed and reached behind it. "Apparently the witch knows who you are too." He retracted his hand and in his fist was a hex bag; identical to the other ones they had discovered.

"Oh…that explains the demon knife." Andie murmured to herself. "Never mind." She added when Dean cut her a confused look.

"If we hadn't found it, surely one or all of you would be dead." Castiel pointed out matter-of-factly, tossing the hex bag onto the coffee table. "Do you know where the witch is now?"

Dean exchanged a nervous look with this brother. "We're working on it."

"That's unfortunate." Castiel replied. "The raising of Samhain is one of the 66 seals." His voice somehow remained the same volume; yet the importance of his statement seemed to ring in the air.

"So this is about your buddy Lucifer." Dean understood now. The urgency; the bigger picture was always the answer to Castiel's visits.

"Lucifer is no friend of ours." Uriel spoke up; highly insulted at the insinuation.

"It's just an expression." Dean assured him meekly.

"Lucifer cannot rise," Castiel said for the thousandth time. "The breaking of the seal must be prevented at all costs."

"Okay, great," Andie spoke up standing between the angels and the brothers. "So now that you're here, why don't you tell us where the witch is, we'll gank her and everybody goes home."

"We are not omniscient." Castiel explained; his face appearing as aged as it ever could. "This witch is very powerful; she's cloaked even our methods." He turned his wizened eyes towards Andie. "And she got past you."

"Okay, well we already know who she is," Sam said, determined to be helpful since the angels weren't thrilled with him using his powers. "So if we work together-"

"Enough of this." Uriel cut in, his voice dripping with disdain, as if even talking with them was a waste of his time.

"Okay, exactly what kind of specialist are you?"Dean snapped. "What the hell are you going to do?"

"All of you need to leave this town immediately." Castiel responded.

Andie folded her arms tightly. "Why?"

"Because we're about to destroy it." Castiel

Dean and Andie held a worried glance. "So this is your plan, you're gonna smite the whole friggin' town?"

Castiel shook his head. "We're out of time." He said solemnly. "This witch has to die and the seal must be saved."

"There are a thousand people here." Sam said defensively.

"One thousand two hundred fourteen." Uriel recited.

"And you're willing to kill them all?" Sam's mouth hung open; astonished at the ferocity from this supposedly angelic being.

"This isn't the first time I've…purified a city." Uriel didn't even try to hide the pride in this statement.

"Look, I understand this is regrettable…" Castiel said to Dean; his empathy coming through.

Dean almost laughed. "Regrettable?" He scoffed.

"We have to hold the line; too many seals have broken already." Castiel told them; his worry clear in his stone.

"So you screw the pooch on some seals and this town has to pay the price?" Dean shook his head back and forth; too angry to make sense of the situation.

"It's the lives of one thousand against the lives of six billion." Castiel told him; though clear pain and regret resonated in his normally even voice. "There's a bigger picture here." He took a commanding step towards Dean. "Lucifer cannot rise, he does and hell rises with him." He took another step towards Dean; eye to eye they were. "Is that something that you're willing to risk?"

"We'll stop this witch before she summons anyone." Sam piped up; still optimistic and hoping to prove he was up for the challenge. "Your seal won't be broken and no one has to die."

"We're wasting time with these mud monkeys." Uriel gestured his hand to the brothers and Andie.

Castiel turned his head to Uriel at this insult; as though it was also an insult to himself. "I'm sorry, but we have our orders." He told Dean.

"No!" Sam snapped. "You can't do this, you're angels! I mean aren't you supposed to-" He was distracted as Uriel proceeded to chuckle quietly. "You're supposed to show mercy."

"You think you can stop us?" Uriel laughed.

Dean's jaw clenched and he stood up in Uriel's face. "No, but if you're gonna smite this whole town, then you're gonna have to smite us with it, because we are not leaving." He said strongly, enjoying telling off this angel with an attitude. "See, you went to the trouble of busting me out of hell, I figure I'm worth something to the man upstairs. So you wanna waste me?" He held his arms out at his sides. "Go ahead, see how he digs that."

Uriel leant forward so he was nose to nose with Dean. "I will drag you out of here myself." He said in a commanding voice.

"You'll have to kill me." Dean smirked.

"And then you'd be back to the same problem." Andie chimed in. "You're gonna wipe out a whole town for one little witch?"

"Sounds to me like you're compensating for something." Dean gave the angel the once over and smirked. He then turned his attention to Castiel; who he knew would listen to him. "We can do this; we will find that witch and we will stop the summoning."

"Castiel!" Uriel bellowed. "I will not let these peop-"

Castiel threw up a hand and silenced his partner. "Enough!" He yelled. His eyebrow furrowed as he stared at Dean; mentally deliberating the pros and cons of the situation. The strength in the hunters before him could not be undervalued. They were strong. "I suggest you move quickly." He said firmly.

With barely a flutter, both Castiel and Uriel disappeared into thin air.

"Well…that was cheerful…" Andie muttered sarcastically.

"Demon knife?" Dean asked.

"Forget it," She waved a dismissive hand at him. "Just don't open the freezer."

xxx